It was too good to be true. I couldn't possibly just walk into the store, pick up the four simple items I needed, find a line with fewer than 28 people, and leave. I don't know who organizes those places (and I'm sure to be stepping on someone's toes), but this has bothered me for quite awhile.

Why check the canned vegetables aisle for the refried beans? Why in the world would they be there. Surely they couldn't be with the pinto beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, green beans, wax beans, mixed beans, kidney beans, yellow beans, navy beans, or French-cut beans. I needed help and went searching for a stock boy. Thank goodness there was someone in "bread." I had to circle the store three times before I found him. It's almost like they know ... "Quick-- it's Mrs. Acidophilus! Run for the break room!".

"They're down aisle 18," he said, adding apologetically; "they're supposed to be Mexican food." Well, there's a novel idea. Sure enough, sitting smugly between the salsa and the enchilada sauce, were the refried black and pinto beans (aha!).

Tomato sauce--something else on my tiny list-- couldn't be with crushed or whole tomatoes, or tomato paste, or tomato puree. It would probably end up being with the pumpkin pie spice or the oven cleaner.

I have an idea. Maybe it would help if we categorized everything by color. Start with everything red. Go to orange, then yellow--you know-- the rainbow technique. Most people know that refried beans would be stocked in the brown division, so they shouldn't be that hard to find. Of course, some store might have a "burnt sienna" row, or a "brick red" section, where people would be in a great uproar as to shades and tints. "I'm sure this is brown-yellow... Or is it yellow-brown..." Also, there would be those wanting to categorize by the color of the can, thereby putting the royal-blue olive can next to the baby wipes.

So maybe color is not the greatest idea. How about alphabetically? Artichokes next to ACME Hair Glop. I suppose it would be difficult for people who were never very good with the alphabet. You'd walk down the aisles, passing people humming the little ABC song, and mumbling things like "'I before E except after C,' or is it 'change the Y to I and add ES?'"

Aren't you glad that God's order is perfect? Though we will never be flawless in this disorderly world, His perfection is our goal. He said, "Let all things be done decently and in order." (1 Cor. 14:40) Even Paul records His view of the Colossians (2:5) as that of a military officer looking over his troops as they wait for inspection. He rejoices as He sees their "order, and the steadfastness of (their) faith in Christ." As we get our faith in order, we then can order our lives.

Back to the store. On second thought, maybe we should just leave it the way it is. The way the store has it figured, the longer they can keep you in there, the more stuff you'll buy. Now, let's see... where would I locate the freeze-dried kelp?